Method for the determination of the formation of endothelins for medical diagnostic purposes, and antibodies and kits for carrying out such a method

Abstract

The invention relates to an in vitro method for detecting the formation of endothelins during serious illnesses, especially cardiovascular diseases, inflammations, sepsis and cancer, in whole blood, plasma or serum of a human patient for medical diagnosis. Using this method, relatively long-lasting peptide fragments, especially a C-terminal peptide fragment, of the processed primary prepro- or proendothelins that contain neither the actual biologically active endothelin nor its direct precursor, big endothelin, can be detected.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a U.S. national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 U.S. of PCT Application Ser. No. PCT / EP2005 / 001359 having an international filing date of Feb. 10, 2005, published in German under Publication No. WO 2005 / 078456 A1 on Aug. 25, 2005, which claims priority from European Application Ser. No. EP 04003295.5, filed Feb. 13, 2004; the disclosures of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The invention relates to methods for the determination of the formation of endothelins in serious diseases by determining peptide fragments of the corresponding proendothelin, in particular a relatively long-lived C-terminal partial peptide of preproendothelin-1, in the circulation (whole blood, plasma or serum) for medical diagnostic purposes, in particular in sepsis diagnosis, in cardiac diagnosis and, for example, also in cancer diagnosis and / or generally in the diagnosis of th...

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